About INVERSO

Inverso Productions was founded in 2012 in Spain to experiment with other art forms and ways of creating dance. Inverso has been a registered non-profit society in Vancouver, BC on on unceded Coast Salish territory since 2017, creating and providing access to dance that is intelligent, innovative and multi-disciplinary. Inverso is dedicated to inclusive practise and aims to dismantle traditional hierarchies that have been embedded in dance and beyond, find new collaborative models, while centring diverse artists in our creative endeavours.  We have recently opened our creative work to senior movement practitioners in intergenerational performance and community engagement. Dance is a means to connect with our community by illuminating our shared humanity as we listen and increase our cultural sensitivity.

Inverso's works have involved the visual arts, literature, theatre, film, music and science. Inverso Productions has produced four full-length works: Brittle Failure, which has been a part of tours and festivals in Spain, the Netherlands and Canada, Spooky Actions, Gem-like and our seminal intergenerational work, Borrowed Time. Inverso has been presented in the CaDance Festival and Korzo Theatre in the Netherlands, International Festival Madrid en Danza and the Reina Sophia Museum in Spain, the Chutzpah Festival, the Banff Festival of the Arts, the Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival, the Schmiede Festival, EDAM Choreographic Series, the Fluid Festival in Calgary, the Dancing on the Edge Festival, Dance in Vancouver and the Vancouver International Dance Festival. Inverso's collaborators include Berlin-based scenographer Yoko Seyama, writer Barbara Adler, videographer David Cooper and composer James Meger, and organizations such as TRIUMF UBC, Curiosity Collider, SFU School of Contemporary Arts and Pi Theatre and Sawdust Collector.

Inverso has expanded our work with and for emerging dance artists. We are proud of Performance Research Project collaborations with Ballet BC, Chor Leoni Men's Choir, and Bard on the Beach, Bloom Mascall Dance and the Vancouver Film School. We have offered a new OPEN series of workshops with award-winning Indigenous artist Margaret Grenier, Order of Canada recipient-Crystal Pite, Renee Segouin, Wen Wei Wang,  Heather Myers and Shay  Kuebler as well as streamed workshops with many international artists from the Netherlands, US, Germany, Spain, Senegal and France joined by dancers all over the world including workshops with Jermaine Spivey of Kidd Pivot and Michael Schumacher co-presented with SFU Woodwards and SFU Cultural Programs.

Partnerships include The Scotiabank Dance Centre and The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. We are grateful for past and present project support from the City of Vancouver, BC Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and our generous private donors.
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photo by Maxim Shapovalov

Executive Artistic Director

Lesley Telford
Lesley is a choreographer and the Artistic Director of Inverso Productions. She is grateful to live and work on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. Through Lesley’s choreographic work she explores the physicality and spatial structures of emotional states at the intersection of dance, the visual arts, text and film. Her work has been described as having “a profound way of tapping into very deep recesses of our emotional and intellectual landscapes”. She founded Inverso Productions in 2012 to experiment with other art forms and ways of creating dance.
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She has created commissions for Ballett Bern, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Netherlands Dans Theater 1, Hubbard Street Dance Company 2, Compañia Nacional de Danza 2, Ballet Vorpommern, and three works for Ballet BC, among others. Next season she will create for Ballet Am Rhein.

As an educator and mentor, she has a long-standing commitment in support of emerging dance artists. To further this purpose Inverso has developed outreach and professional platforms to provide valuable opportunities and experience. She has taught internationally in many companies and schools.

Lesley finished her studies in Montreal at L´École Supérieur de Danse du Québec before joining the company Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. She went on to dance with Nacho Duato´s Compañia Nacional de Danza in Madrid, Spain and Netherlands Dans Theater 1.  Lesley has a Master of Arts in Cultural Production from the University of Salzburg and the Mozarteum. 
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photo by Martin Knowles

Production & Administrative Assistant

Samantha Krystal
Samantha is a dance artist who applies her vast experience in the field working in a production, administrative and artistic capacity with Inverso Productions. She is primarily a freelance dancer and visual artist based on the unceded Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) territories. Samantha is a graduate of Modus Operandi’s Contemporary Dance Training Program and UBC’s Microbiology & Immunology program. Most recently, she trained through Inverso Productions' Performance Research Project and performed with Co. ERASGA Dance. She is currently studying graphic design and working as an Administrative Assistant for Howegroup Public Sector Consultants and Inverso Productions.
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photo by Chris Randle

Artistic Associate

Heather Myers
Heather is a mother, dance artist, and arts facilitator. She received her training at the National Ballet School and The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and danced with Alberta Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Nederlands Dans Theater 1. As a company dancer, and later, as an independent artist she has worked with artists including Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Jiri Kylian, Medhi Walerski, Lucinda Childs, Ivan Perez, Marina Mascarell, and Lesley Telford. Heather received the Clifford E. Lee Award for choreography in 2009 and has worked as a commissioned choreographer and instructor of technique and creative process locally and internationally. While living in Holland, Heather organized community-based interdisciplinary improv sessions as part of her work on NDT’s SWITCH committee, and later initiated dance exchange/workshops during personal travel in Indonesia and India.

Most interested in questions around creative process, context, and the social relevance of artistic intelligence, Heather now enjoys supporting the evolution and delivery of other people's work. Pursuing these interests, Heather is currently completing The Tamalpa Institute's Teacher Training Program in Life/Art processes and Somatic Movement Education, and recently completed an Arts Management program at Capilano University which included practicum work with The PuSh Festival, The Roundhouse, and Plastic Orchid Factory. She has also studied Contemporary Arts at SFU, and studied with Ruth Little and Liz Lerman in Banff, among others. Thanks to the trust and generosity of her community, Heather now collaborates with various artists and organizations as an instructor, rehearsal director, creative advisor, interpreter, writer, and production assistant. She lives in Burnaby, BC, on unceded Central Coast Salish Territory.

Dance Artists

Ariana Barr
Raised in Victoria BC, Ariana has nurtured her love of dance and expression since the age of six. With the unwavering support of her family, she has developed her practice from early days in the living room, to collaborative spaces and stages across Canada. Ariana’s formal training began at the Pacific Dance Center and continued through the Arts Umbrella Graduate Program and Performance Research Project. In addition to performing with Ballet Edmonton for six seasons under the artistic direction of Wen Wei Wang, Ariana has also worked with several Vancouver-based companies including Inverso Productions, Vision Impure, Belle Spirale, Rachel Meyers, Wen Wei Dance and Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY. In 2023, Ariana was honored to receive the Edmonton Artist’s Trust Fund Award for her contributions to the Edmonton arts community. Ariana now lives and dances as a guest on the traditional, unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples. She is deeply grateful to spend her life being shaped, continuously, both by the people she works with and by the transformative power of movement itself. ​
Shana 愛 ​Wolfe
Shana 愛 Wolfe is a Japanese-Canadian freelance dance artist based in Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She has collaborated with local companies including Company 605, OURO Collective, and Inverso Productions, as well as independent artists such as Cindy Mochizuki, Raven Grenier, and Anya Saugstad. Thanks to these amazing artists, she’s had the privilege to perform at festivals such as Dancing on the Edge, Vines Art Festival, Guelph Dance Festival, Dance Deck, Dance in Vancouver, and Coastal Dance Festival. Internationally, she has performed at Sadler’s Wells (UK), the Autostadt Theatre in Wolfsburg, and the Tanzbiennale in Heidelberg, Germany. Shana is currently pursuing a Kinesiology diploma at Langara College.
Calder wHite
​Calder White (he/him) is a freelance dance artist based on the unceded and Ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. He pulls heavily from his training in Limón modern, Bartenieff Fundamentals, and Countertechnique to inform his teachings of weight, fall and suspension, and compartmentalization of the body. Calder has shared his workshops with institutions across North America, including at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, UC Santa Barbara, Yukon Contemporary Training Community, Training Society of Vancouver, and the Ohio State University. When he isn't teaching, Calder choreographs his own work and is a company member with Shay Kuebler/Radical System Art, Josh Beamish/MOVE the company, and Santa Barbara Dance Theater.
and...
​Kerstin Luettich
​Barbara Karmazyn
​Eowynn Enquist
Isak Enquist

​Past Collaborators:
Steph Cyr
​Kiera Hill
Eden Solomon
Brandon Alley
Anya Saugstad
​Lucas Wilson-Bilbro
Daria Mikhaylyuk
Marisa Gold
Justin Calvadores

Team

Don Leiblich/ Accountant

Board of Directors

Christina Bulbrook, Co-Chair
Peter Belanger, Treasurer, Co-Chair
Samantha Sutherland, Secretary 
Sally-Ann Ambrosio, Director-At-Large 

Artistic collaborators

Barbara Adler, Writer/ Dramaturge
​James Meger/ Composer
Irene Weng/ Lighting and Technical Direction
David Cooper/ Photographer, Videographer
​Andrew Mackenzie/ Editor
Yoko Seyama/ Scenography
Alan Brodie/ Lighting

Inverso now has charitable status!


Please consider a donation and receive a charitable receipt! Whatever you wish to contribute will help us with some very exciting new developments. It is because of the investment of individuals such as yourself that we are able to present original, challenging work that we are proud to share and serve as a support system for emerging artists. As Inverso Productions, we are thrilled to be active artists in this community and we are grateful to have your support along this path.